State Superintendent John Barge shares concerns about charter amendment

Thursday

Oct 25, 2012 at 12:53 AM

Jenel Few

State Superintendent of Schools John Barge came to Savannah on Wednesday to discuss his vision for education but got grilled for opinions on the upcoming charter school Constitutional amendment.

Barge started off by covering the standard public education talking points during the academic forum, organized by state Sen. Lester Jackson and the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. He explained that Georgia's SAT scores aren't ranked higher because the state tests 80 percent of its high school seniors instead of just the top 5 percent.

He said graduation rates aren't any lower than in the past and they just look worse because of the new cohort rate calculation method. He celebrated the increases in African-American achievement, but said there is still much work to be done to close achievement gaps. And Barge discussed how Georgia plans to raise outcomes using career pathways to provide students with relevance and a new performance index to hold schools accountable.

But everyone in the small gathering of primarily African-American Democrats wanted to know what the Republican state superintendent had to say about the proposed constitutional amendment, HR1162, on the Nov. 6 ballot. If approved, the amendment will create a state agency in Atlanta to approve and fund charter schools. If it fails, those decisions will be left to local school boards and the State Board of Education.

Barge is one of a very few high profile Georgia Republicans to publicly oppose the charter amendment. This summer he released a statement outlining how a separate, state-funded charter system would undercut funding and support for the existing public education system but removed it upon recommendation from the state Attorney General's office after being accused of using state funding to lobby for no votes.

Flanked by two men in Vote No T-shirts, Jackson asked: "Will the charter amendment on the ballot affect public education in a negative way?"

Barge hesitated to respond.

"Will it take away money?" Jackson pressed him further, as did others in the crowd.

Barge said the previous state charter school commission approved about seven charter schools per year. At that rate, considering legislative changes that would increase funding for state commission approved charters, Barge said he estimates it could cost an additional $430 million a year to fund charter schools.

"Before we start giving huge sums of money to another system, let's fully fund this one," Barge said. "There are 72 public school districts in Georgia operating at a deficit. If we continue to withhold funding as we have, we are going to have bankrupt school systems."